HSE Seminar on Political Economy: Eren Arbatli (HSE) about the Collective Memory and Persistent Party Identification

Can party loyalty be motivated by social and cultural identities transmitted across generations and collective memory? Eren Arbatli says "yes", analyzing the history of Sasun, a mountainous region of the Ottoman Empire located in Eastern Turkey.

Topic: " Partisanship as Tradition: Critical Junctures, Collective Memory and Persistent Party Identification" 

joint work with David Gomtsyan

Abstract: Party loyalty can be motivated by various forces. Sometimes it is driven by instrumental motives and ideological leanings. At other times, it is better viewed as an expression of more enduring social and cultural identities transmitted across generations. We study the case of Sasun Armenians to illustrate this latter view. Our paper traces the origins of long-term party identification to a critical juncture in the local history of Sasun, a mountainous region of the Ottoman Empire located in Eastern Turkey. During the Great Massacres against Armenians at the end of the 19th century, Armenian residents of Sasun received armed support from the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) to defend their villages from military attacks. With the help of the ARF rebels, survivors of the Armenian Genocide (1915-1917) from Sasun region settled in various villages in modern-day Armenia. We show that the descendants of Sasun migrants strongly embrace the local legacy of their ancestral contact with the ARF. They are not only more likely to name their children after the ARF rebels who helped Sasun people in their armed struggle but they also are more likely to vote for the ARF today, although the party was not active in Armenia during the seven decades of the Soviet rule.

the joint seminar of Higher School of Economics on political economy, International Center for the Study of Institutions and Development (ICSID) and NES Center for the Study of Diversity and Social Interaction (NES CSDSI) was held on November 13.

Moderators:Alexei Zakharov (HSE),Konstantin Sonin (HSE, The University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy)